Ostioneria Bahia Mexican & Seafood - Orange

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Last year, in Salinas, we fell in love with a soup called “siete mares”. We didn’t plan on it, but rather than settling with the fast food joints that surrounded our hotel, we decided to try our luck on a Mexican joint that was within walking distance.

The restaurant was called Los Altos and their rendition of “siete mares” soup blew our minds.

“Where has this been all our lives?” I wondered aloud as we feasted on shrimp, white fish, snow crab legs, mussels, oysters, octopus, and abalone simmered in a light tomato-based broth.

I’ve had cioppino in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. I’ve had a dozen different bowls of bouillabaisse at fine French restaurants. None were as good as the caldo siete mares I ate at this taqueria in Salinas.

Everything about it made sense, not the least of which is the chance to eat seven kinds of seafood in one sitting without spending a fortune.

After coming back from that trip, we were on a mission to taste as many siete mares in our home turf of Orange County as we could.

Some were too tomatoey; some smelled fishy; some didn’t have seven types of seafood, which amounted to false advertisement.

I was resigned that a worthy bowl of siete mares was becoming my white whale…that is, until last night.

In the caldo siete mares at Ostioneria Bahia in Orange, I’ve found Los Altos’ equal.

It had everything all the others were missing. All seven kinds of seafood were accounted for. There was no fishiness. And in the broth, its lifeblood, I again tasted the balanced seafood and tomato nectar that spurred my quest last year. It tasted like…victory.

Ostioneria Bahia Mexican & Seafood
144 S Tustin St
Orange, CA 92866